# Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Act 2025, Section 65: Verdict of guilty or not guilty and majority required for guilty verdict

Extent: S

(1) The 1995 Act is amended as follows.
(2) Before section 100 (verdict of jury) insert—
“Verdict of guilty or not guilty and majority for guilty verdict
99A (1) In respect of each charge, the jury must deliver a verdict of either—
(a) guilty, or
(b) not guilty.
(2) The jury may return a verdict of guilty only if a majority of the jurors are in favour of that verdict.
(3) Otherwise, the jury must return a verdict of not guilty.
(4) For the purposes of subsection (2), a majority of jurors are in favour of a verdict if—
(a) in the case of a jury consisting of 14 or 15 jurors, at least 10 of the jurors are so in favour,
(b) in the case of a jury consisting of 13 jurors, at least 9 jurors are so in favour,
(c) in the case of a jury consisting of 12 jurors, at least 8 jurors are so in favour.”.
(3) In section 100 (verdict of jury) the section title becomes “Delivery of jury verdict”.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2025/12/section/65 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/victims-witnesses-and-justice-reform-scotland-act-2025/section-65
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.